There is a known technology that displays, in an overlapped manner on a screen when a pointing is performed on a screen by an operation tool, such as a mouse, a touch, or the like, an operation menu related to the pointed target near the pointed position. When a user selects a single menu item in the displayed operation menus, the command related to the pointed target is determined and executed by the selected on the basis of the selected menu item. This type of operation menu is typically referred to as a “context menu”. The context menu is widely used as a user interface of application in a typical personal computer (PC) or an application subjected to a touch operation performed by a tablet, a smart phone, or the like.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2001-184458
Patent Document 2: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 08-180138
Patent Document 3: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 05-061596
However, there is a problem in that, if objects displayed on a screen are densely packed, an operation to display a context menu is not able to be efficiently performed. Furthermore, in another point of view, there is a problem in that, if objects displayed on a screen are densely packed, even if a context menu is displayed, the visibility of the objects that have already been displayed is decreased.
For example, if objects displayed on a screen are densely packed, the area of the screen with no object is small, it is difficult for a user to perform a pointing by avoiding the object. Consequently, a pointing operation to display a context menu is not able to be efficiently performed.
Furthermore, even if a context menu is displayed, because the context menu is displayed on the screen in an overlapped manner, the context menu may possibly hide the already displayed objects. Thus, even if a context menu is displayed, there may be a case of decreasing the visibility of the already displayed objects.